What We Watch: Sigrid Peterson

August 25, 2019 Susannah Brooks Leave a Comment

Sigrid Peterson, online content editor for Wisconsin Public Television, manages much of the content that livens up WPT’s web presence.

Read on for some of Sig’s top public TV picks!

What are some of your favorite public TV shows?

I’m part of our Online & Digital unit, and consequently I love the programs we call “digital first” — shows produced with the specific affordances of online and social media platforms in mind.

I’m a huge fan of Noon Wednesday, our weekly live interview series on Facebook. It’s bringing urgent, diverse and high quality conversation to a new generation of local news consumers.

I also love the PBS Digital series that cover the arts and humanities, such as The Art Assignment, It’s Lit, and Monstrum

Check out intros to these series below:

How do you like to watch public television programs?

I don’t own a TV — smart or otherwise (please don’t tell the boss!). Instead, I access all of our programming on my desktop or tablet. When I want to watch “television,” I just watch the livestream simulcast of our on-air WPT flagship channel.

(Curious? Visit live simulcasts of our flagship channel, the Wisconsin Channel and WPT/PBS Kids here!)

I always make time to watch the livestream of PBS NewsHour. There’s something comforting to me about greeting Judy Woodruff at 6 p.m.  She’s such an inspiration! 

How has working for WPT informed your viewing?

We’re lucky to work with a group of professionals sincerely dedicated to making Wisconsin, and our world, better.  Many of us talk about the importance of every person in the state seeing a piece of themselves and their community in public media programming. That makes me look closely at whose stories we’re telling, whose stories we might be missing. We can always do better.

I was so moved by our recent documentary Not Enough Apologies, about the lived experience of those enduring effects of trauma, and how Wisconsin caregivers, teachers and service providers are mobilizing to help. 

What programs are you looking forward to in the next several months?

I’m really excited for the September premiere of Ken Burns’ Country Music. Country, as a genre, has an overlooked historical, social and cultural complexity. Dolly Parton is also one of my heroes, so I’m beyond excited to see her featured!

Visit WPT’s Country Music page for exclusive content from Madison’s Bill C. Malone, the only historian featured in the series.

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